[color=lightgray][CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h3][color=4682b4][i][b]Ash Holloway[/b][/i][/color][/h3][i][b][color=4682b4]Location:[/color][/b][/i] Mechanics (K) -> Mess Hall (C) [i][b][color=4682b4]Skills:[/color][/b][/i] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.ibb.co/Wnnd0Wm/Ash-FC-5.jpg[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][/color] It took Ash a little bit to realize what Ted was saying, overall. It wasn't actually until the man came out and said outright that he wasn't done with his shift that Ash understood what he was getting at. Ted had to come back to this cart for work, and it would be highly counterproductive if he had to run back into the building to grab his stuff. Point made. This meant that Ash got to shave a few minutes off of his expected time to get to Mess and meet up with Thana, even it did feel somehow against his sense of work ethic. But he made a point. [color=4682b4]"Alright, alright,"[/color] relented Ash, [color=4682b4]"No blaming The Ted."[/color] He said it flatly, nodding, but the barest hint of humor might have been glimpsed if one listened hard enough. [color=4682b4]"Good working with you,"[/color] he did finally say as the man started to walk off. Ted looked like he wanted some space, so Ash gave it a five count before moving out, himself. He looked to their hitchhiker, Amelia, and voiced the event of the hour as if it were a question, [color=4682b4]"Dinnertime?"[/color] motioning his head in the direction of the Mess Hall. [color=4682b4]"Come on, I have a feeling it's fish."[/color] He shrugged, and started on his way. The walk was short, as were most things in a semi-urban setting wherein one already had sight of the building they were going for. And on the off chance that he might have forgotten where the meals were being served, Ash had only to look at the focus point for the camp at that hour; it was the one place that everyone seemed to be going to or coming from. It was like that when he was with the military, proper. Everyone on base could tell where the food was kept during three blocks of time each day, guaranteed. Even if you were new to the base. Even if you were new to the Army. Period. Ash gave a glance to see if Amelia was following, but ultimately that was her business. As he said, be it in a mildly joking manner, he had a date. Ash just hoped that she wouldn't be pissed that he was late. Entering the Mess was everything the he imagined it might be from lunch, except he wasn't still damp from having to hose off from a mess so epic it might have been a cautionary tale. His emotions, while internal as a rule, still clung to the coloration they took on from the memorial service earlier. Simultaneously, he felt that this new chapter in his life might be the point where he could turn things around for himself and those he cared about. And speaking of those he cared about, Ash was surprised (and a little nervous) to see that Thana had taken a perch on high ground, amid the swirl of CMB locals shuffling to and fro. He cracked a more honest smile and diverted his course over to her, stopping every so often to allow others in line or moving toward the line to pass without interruption, as he would hope others might when he made his move for the foodstuffs. [color=4682b4]"Hey! I missed you. Sorry I'm late,"[/color] he started, shaking his head apologetically. [color=4682b4]"Last job was cleaning out the stockade. Got locked in for a while."[/color] He leaned in a little, feeling out the situation before actually making a full move to steal a kiss. [color=4682b4]"Off Duty. You?"[/color] It was best to make sure, lest he commit a grievous error in judgement. [color=lightgray][CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h3][color=dc143c][i][b]Thalia Carmichael[/b][/i][/color][/h3][i][b][color=dc143c]Location:[/color][/b][/i] Mess Hall (C) [i][b][color=dc143c]Skills:[/color][/b][/i] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.ibb.co/D9f1NPS/Thalia-Irritated.jpg[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][CENTER]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][/color] Did Thalia mention that she didn't like crowds? Because she didn't. Mouth-breather behind her was standing too close for her likes, and knob-head in front was taking too long. But it was okay. It was [i]all good[/i]. These people weren't enemies. They weren't even adversaries, nor rivals. They were survivors just like her, operating in their capacity as useful members of a society and blah, blah, blah... And no they [i]weren't[/i] just like her. They had two complete arms and probably never had to dig for earthworms or strip off pine bark for calories after climbing down from a tree they tied themselves to for a secure night's sleep, or what amounted to a secure night's sleep considering the on-and-off misting of rain. They probably never had to outrun a bear or a gang of lovesick former accountants (for the same reasons, no doubt), nor had they ever had to nail someone to a wall with a fire-hardened stick to defend a single, precious, unopened bag of cheese flavored snack crackers. Or hell, maybe they had. For all Thalia knew, they could secretly fly. Either way, the Angel didn't feel particularly angelic right then, and as soon as she got her food she was going to find someplace in a corner, or at least away from the bulk of the people present to eat her supper. Past that, she had no idea what she was going to do with the rest of her evening. Thalia tried to scan the room, looking for people she knew that would make suppertime more tolerable. Maybe if she had looked behind her, she might have seen Atticus and Joaquin getting into the line, which might have made for an acceptable pair or dining companions. But no, her eyes were out to the tables. Then it was that she spotted Thana, disengaging from the line [i]ahead[/i] of her and moving to... the stage! Perfect. Out of the way, good vantage point, and with someone she considered a rare friend. Good. Plan intact, Thalia kept her shit together as best she could without offering Mouth-Breather an elbow to his trachea, quietly requested the sushi plate, then grabbed an orange and something to drink. She turned and made for the stage, and Thana. Unfortunately, that meddling bastard Captain America found his way over to her first. The urge to [i]gahd dammit[/i] rose, but she tamped it back down as best she could. It only eeked out in the form of a burning gaze and slight snarl, like a pissed-off rottweiler who ordered itself to heel before it was too late to pull its teeth out of someone's left asscheek. Did she mention that she didn't like crowds? No problem. This could be gotten around with tact, dignity, and grace. Possessing none of these traits, however, Thalia had to improvise. She strode right up to where Thana was sitting and rested her tray to the side, then immediately turned her back to the stage and hopped up to sit right beside her, legs dangling below. Thalia snaked her metal arm around Thana's shoulders into a one-armed hug and looked down at Ash, her other hand picking up the orange from her tray. She bit into it like it was an apple (because she'd re-learn that [i]peeling[/i] thing another day) and began chewing it up, flesh and rind, both. Through a mouthful of citrus, Thalia tersely and directly stated, [color=dc143c]"Claimed."[/color]